It can become very difficult to implant a properly working surveillance device in Northern waters that may be covered, or partially covered, with ice fields. Also, most air-launched devices do not contact the surface in a straight vertical manner, but rather at a slant angle of approximately twenty degrees, or even more, and then descend several feet below the surface before inflation of the surface float. When the float inflates, the device will generally rise to below the ice cover and lay over on its side. Since the RF antenna is usually contained in the surface float, this sideways orientation of the antenna results in poor, or no, communications.